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Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Representative Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18), members of the LGBT Equality Caucus, other Congressional Members and supporting organizations at an announcement of an amicus brief in support of civil rights protections for historically marginalized groups. Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission focuses on whether a business can legally discriminate against customers based on sexual orientation, race, religion and ability, among others, by citing First Amendment protections for “sincerely” held religious beliefs. Below are the Leader’s remarks:

Leader Pelosi. Thank you very much Congressman [Sean Patrick] Maloney for calling us together here today for reaffirming our commitment to what America is all about. In the history of our country, it has been a history of ever-expanding freedom, ever-expanding ending of discrimination.

That’s why I am so proud to be advancing that fight by joining my colleagues in signing the Amicus brief. Today, we reaffirm that every man and woman deserves to be safe from discrimination regardless of who they are and whom they love – who they are and whom they love. The Masterpiece Cakeshop case touches the lives, of course, of LGBT people but it also touches the lives of all Americans. The case is about the fundamental right for all groups to be free from discrimination. With this brief, we are fighting that our nation lives up to its ideals of equality and justice for all.

So, thank you [Congressman] Maloney, thank you Sarah Warbelow of the Human Rights Campaign, Ian Thompson from ACLU, Harper Jean Tobin, National Center for Transgender Equity and all of my colleagues who have come together to fight for progress for full and equal rights for all. Thank you for this patriotic act that we are engaging in today. Hopefully that court [looking toward the Supreme Court] – where’d it go? Hopefully it won’t be in the fog when it makes its decision. Thank you.